Post navigation

MVP’s around the World

In July 2017 the new annual award cycle regime was put into effect for Microsoft MVP’s around the world. Earlier this year, to simplify the process and introduce new talent in the program more quickly, Microsoft switched to a monthly cycle for recognizing MVP’s, and changed the award review from a quarterly to an annual cycle. This meant MVP’s from April and July were going to be the first ones the be reviewed for June 2017; the January and October awardees got their review shifted to July 2018. That might look like dispensation, but it isn’t as their contributions will be evaluated over a longer period of time.

Looking at the publicly available statistics on MVP’s around the world could provide some insight in what the program – and thus Microsoft – has set their sights on. So with the introduction of the new cycle, I did a quick comparison of this and last month’s numbers. But first a small disclaimer: below numbers are taken from a public source, the Microsoft Valuable Professional portal. Also, there are a small number of anonymous MVP’s, which always puzzles me as being an MVP usually means that this person is visible online. And finally, note that MVP’s can be awarded in more than one category, which is the reason some numbers won’t add up.

To start with the total number of MVP’s, that went down from 4017 in June to 3410 (-15%). It also saw a new category being added to the program: Artificial Intelligence, or AI. The table below contains the number of awards per category, and the change from June to July:

Competence

June-2017

July-2017

Change

Access

41

37

-10%

AI

0

1

100%

Business Solutions

236

193

-18%

Cloud and Datacenter Management

455

392

-14%

Data Platform

445

399

-10%

Enterprise Mobility

170

148

-13%

Excel

116

94

-19%

Microsoft Azure

342

311

-9%

Office Development

39

38

-3%

Office Servers and Services

532

449

-16%

OneNote

16

15

-6%

Outlook

14

14

0%

PowerPoint

36

36

0%

Visio

15

14

-7%

Visual Studio and Development Technologies

1100

901

-18%

Windows and Devices for IT

201

148

-26%

Windows Development

351

277

-21%

Word

25

23

-8%

Total

4134

3490

-16%

Overall, the numbers are down except for the new AI category and the number of Outlook and PowerPoint MVP’s.

Regarding the Office Servers and Services MVP’s, the number of awards per country is depicted in the following heath map and table. Note that anonymous MVP’s are not taken into account:

Country

Number

Country

Count

Country

Count

Argentina

2 (0%)

Hungary

4 (0%)

Russia

8 (-12%)

Australia

21 (-25%)

India

12 (-8%)

Serbia

1 (0%)

Austria

1 (0%)

Ireland

1 (-50%)

Singapore

4 (0%)

Belarus

1 (0%)

Israel

1 (-50%)

Slovakia

1 (0%)

Belgium

7 (-13%)

Italy

10 (-10%)

Slovenia

2 (0%)

Bosnia-Herzegovina

3 (0%)

Japan

18 (-10%)

South Africa

4 (-20%)

Brazil

4 (-50%)

Korea

9 (-25%)

Spain

6 (-15%)

Brunei Darussalam

1 (0%)

Kuwait

1 (0%)

Sri Lanka

6 (-15%)

Bulgaria

2 (0%)

Latvia

1 (0%)

Sweden

8 (-20%)

Canada

38 (-18%)

Macedonia F.Y.R.O

1 (-50%)

Switzerland

5 (-29%)

Chile

1 (-50%)

Malaysia

2 (-34%)

Taiwan

0 (-100%)

China

15 (-25%)

Mexico

3 (-25%)

Thailand

1 (0%)

Colombia

2 (-34%)

Myanmar

0 (-100%)

The Netherlands

13 (0%)

Croatia

5 (0%)

Nepal

1 (0%)

Turkey

4 (0%)

Czech Republic

2 (0%)

New Zealand

5 (-17%)

Ukraine

2 (0%)

Denmark

4 (0%)

Norway

5 (0%)

United Arab Emirates

3 (-40%)

Egypt

2 (0%)

Pakistan

1 (-50%)

United Kingdom

21 (-20%)

Finland

2 (0%)

Palestine

1 (0%)

United States

103 (-11%)

France

16 (-16%)

Peru

2 (0%)

Uruguay

1 (0%)

Germany

17 (-6%)

Poland

3 (0%)

Vietnam

2 (-34%)

Greece

1 (0%)

Portugal

4 (-20%)

Total

429 (-16%)

Guatemala

0 (-100%)

Romania

2 (0%)

Looking at the names that were not on the MVP portal per July, one may notice there are quite a number of long-standing MVP’s that were not re-awarded. Apart from being a big loss for the community, it is also an indication Microsoft is further looking ahead to the Cloud First, Mobile First, On First™ world, indiscriminately coming clean with the MVP population in the process.

For those that were not re-awarded, thank you for all your past contribution, some for being an inspiration long before I became one, your honest feedback to the program and other MVP’s. Don’t forget: Once an MVP, always an MVP!

Like this:

About Michel de Rooij

Michel is a Microsoft Office Apps and Services MVP, with focus on Exchange Server, Office 365 and a PowerShell affection. He is a consultant, publisher of EighTwOne, published author, and speaker. You can find Michel on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+.

Copyright

Unauthorized use or duplication of this material without permission from EighTwOne is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided full and clear credit is given to EighTwOne with appropriate direction to original content.

Disclaimer

Content is verified as far as possible, however, usage is at your own risk. EighTwOne does not accept liability for information contained on sites linked to. Opinions expressed are my own and do not represent my employer’s positions, strategies or opinions.

About Michel de Rooij

Michel is an Office Servers and Services MVP with a PowerShell affection, and publisher of EighTwOne. You can find him on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+. Use the Contact form for questions, consulting, support or other engagements.